His work met critical acclaim through his early Schoolgirl and Alice series, the latter Blackman's conception of Lewis Carroll's most famous character.
In 1960 he and his family lived in London after Blackman won a Helena Rubenstein travelling scholarship, settling in Sydney upon his return five and a half years later.
He lived there for a year at the same time as John Coburn, and subsequently returned often, as Paris was for him a lasting source of inspiration.
[8] Blackman was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Australian art in 1977.
[10] Ursula Dubosarsky's novel The Golden Day was directly inspired by Blackman's 1954 painting Floating Schoolgirl,[11] which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.